A&D Business Development Lead (San Francisco)

About Branch

Branch is shaking up the $46B office furniture industry to create work experiences for the 21st century: easy, flexible and smart so you can sit down (or stand) and get to work.

We're based in NYC and backed by the investors behind household brands and products like Peloton, Feastables, Eight Sleep, Caraway and Venmo. We’re an ambitious group of problem solvers innovating across design, software, health and logistics, and we’re looking for entrepreneurial teammates who like a challenge.

The Opportunity

Over the past two years, we’ve had a front-row view as organizations returned to the office, many of them on a hybrid schedule. Branch is positioned to become the partner of choice for companies that want inspiring, ergonomic workspaces wherever their teams work, without breaking the bank.

We’re already doing it: our office products have achieved rave reviews from startups and landlords to F500 companies and institutions like Google, Shopify, LVMH, SpaceX and MIT. We’ve built Branch Business to eight figures of annual revenue, and it’s time to take it to the next level, driven by partnerships with the landlords, brokers and designers who shape new offices.

The Role 

We’re hiring an A&D Business Development Lead in San Francisco to grow revenue through the commercial interior design community. You’ll build relationships with the interior designers, architects and workplace project managers who furnish spec suites for landlords and fit out new offices for tenants, and you’ll turn those relationships into a steady flow of referred projects. You’ll work side by side with our Bay Area Senior Account Executive, who closes the business you open.  

Many of our largest Bay Area projects start with a designer. A landlord hires a design firm to furnish a vacant suite on a tight timeline, and the designer specifies Branch because our furniture is in stock, installs in weeks and fits the budget. One design partner alone has brought us dozens of spec suites. Your job is to find and grow the next ten. You’ll spend most of your week in the field: in design studios, at industry events, and walking designers through our Jackson Square showroom and the finished suites we’ve furnished across the city.

You’ll have the opportunity to shape the role, the playbook and the way Branch shows up in the design community. If you’re equal parts relationship builder, hunter and strategic thinker, we’d love to hear from you.

Day-to-day:

• Build relationships with commercial interior design firms, architects and workplace project managers who design spec suites, tenant fit-outs and office moves for landlords and growing companies
• Map the Bay Area commercial interiors market: which firms do spec-suite and tenant-improvement work, for which landlords, and who decides on furniture. Track coverage and progress in HubSpot
• Run daily outreach by phone, email, LinkedIn and in person, with a goal of six or more meetings a week
• Host designers at our Jackson Square showroom and in finished Branch suites so they can see and test what they’ll specify
• Launch and run our designer referral program: trade pricing tiers, project registration so designers keep credit for the projects they bring, and talk tracks for introducing Branch to their clients
• Equip designers to specify us quickly with product and finish samples, CAD and Revit files, stock and lead-time information, and case studies of suites that leased faster
• Activate a quarterly field calendar of studio lunches, lunch-and-learns, breakfasts and industry events such as IIDA, ASID and CoreNet
• Bring every qualified project to our Account Executives with the context they need to close it, and stay involved through delivery so the designer comes back with the next one
• Run a monthly review of designer-sourced pipeline: what’s moving, what’s stuck and which firms to prioritize next
• Share what designers ask for that we don’t offer yet, so our product team can close the gaps

What success looks like

• First 90 days: a mapped list of the Bay Area design firms that matter most for spec-suite and fit-out work, and first meetings with most of them
• Six months: designers referring projects to Branch every month, and at least one firm sending repeat work
• One year: a core group of design partners who specify Branch project after project

What we’re looking for:

• 3+ years selling to or working inside the commercial design community, for example A&D sales at a furniture dealer or manufacturer, a role at a commercial interiors firm, or tenant-improvement project management
• Existing relationships with Bay Area commercial interior designers and architects
• Proven success opening doors through cold outreach, events and introductions
• Comfort selling speed, value and in-stock inventory. Our catalog is focused, so you’ll win by solving the designer’s timeline and budget problem rather than through custom specification
• Outstanding communication and presentation skills
• Excitement to build relationships in person. This is a full-time, in-market role, and you’ll often meet clients over morning coffee or at evening events
• An ownership mindset and bias toward action in a lean, fast-moving team
• Persistence and resilience, with a track record of getting past obstacles to get the job done

Bonus points:

• Experience with spec suites, tenant improvements or landlord-funded fit-outs
• Working knowledge of commercial leasing: landlords, tenant-rep brokers, TI allowances, and why a vacant suite costs an owner money every month
• Experience building trade or partner programs (tiers, project registration, co-marketing)
• Fluency with furniture specification tools and workflows such as CAD, Revit and product libraries
• CRM discipline: lists, sequences and accurate project registration
• A love for design, wellness, real estate and the built environment

OTE: $135,000 USD, uncapped